


the tide of blossom

by terushimas



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, M/M, Valentine's Day, wholesome klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:04:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9773522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terushimas/pseuds/terushimas
Summary: It’s Valentine’s day, and this time Lance is going to get it right and finally spend the holiday happy and full of romance, preferably with Keith. How to win a person’s heart on this holiday? Easy: flowers.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at two in the morning and didn't edit it lmao  
> lowkey inspired by [this art](http://rwby2.tumblr.com/post/157252427724/flustered-valentines-klance-0)  
> title is from blame it on me - george ezra

Out of all the days Pidge could have finished their earth clock to keep track of time for the paladins, it had to happen on Lance’s least-favorite holiday: Valentine’s day. It’s not that he didn’t love Valentine’s day—he’s always thought it was a cute concept—but Valentine’s day didn’t love him back.

The holiday had it out for him since third grade, when the girl he had a crush on, Camilla, didn’t give him her Valentine’s card, but gave it to Joseph instead. (It became a little redeemed when the next year Joseph had given his Valentine’s card to Lance. _A little.)_ At age 9, Camilla was his first crush, and first broken heart.

His is first girlfriend had forgotten about Valentine’s day, and accidentally stood Lance up to the “fancy” dinner reservation he had made for them at the local Olive Garden. He found out she didn’t like the holiday anyway, and Lance immediately broke up with her.

His seventh grade year he had a secret admirer, which made Lance die of happiness. Up to this point, he was still optimistic about Valentine’s day—he hoped his admirer was the cute boy in his English class, because he had nice handwriting and was very pretty. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the girl in his government class who hated gay people. It’s safe to say that it didn’t go over very well when Lance found out (if he were accused of laughing in her face until he cried, he wouldn’t deny it).

His first boyfriend seemed very promising and considering their anniversary happened to fall on Valentine’s day, and he was excited to finally enjoy the holiday with someone and be able to be the grossly-in-love one instead of the salty-as-hell-single. Despite his hope that this year wouldn’t be a complete failure, that all came burning to a halt when Lance’s boyfriend dumped him the morning of school that day.

Having hope for one more year, Lance decided to bring his crush flowers his first year at the Garrison. Hunk was his only motivation factor, saying that if he didn’t do it now, he would never get the guts again in his life. So, taking Hunk’s advice, Lance walked himself and a bouquet of red and white roses through the corridors, navigating to the room of the one-and-only-rival-of-Lance-McClain: Keith. Lance looked at the bottom of the door, and it seemed like no lights were on. Braving through in case Keith was _actually_ there, Lance knocked. And knocked. Three more times. When he was about to knock for the sixth time, he got a text from Hunk: _“Keith got kicked out yesterday… you have such bad luck : <”_ He screamed.

Needless to say, Lance hadn’t had the greatest track record when it came to Valentine’s day romance: they mostly ended with Lance and Hunk watching a romantic comedy on the couch. But, this year he had determination—they landed on a planet for the first time in what’s felt like weeks (now that he knows they’ve been gone for almost an entire year he’s not sure how to grasp the concept of time anymore). Lance wanted a redo of last year, having just enough hope in Valentine’s day to seek redemption from all his past failures.

He did feel a little bit guilty about asking Pidge to make him a translator device so soon after they had finished the earth clock for all of them, but once they had their fair share of laughter about Lance’s long-term crush, Pidge agreed.

With Pidge’s translator-watch and some form of money he didn’t recognize, he set out on his mission: find some pretty flowers to give to Keith. It seemed simple enough—but apparently these aliens didn’t have florist shops _anywhere_. There was some kind of market going on that he had begun wondering around in, but he wasn’t sure what was food on this planet or how it looked different than flowers.

Lance returned to the ship, seeking the aid of Pidge and their technology once again. They sighed at his helplessness, but had helped him regardless. “In the name of love, I’ll help you one last time,” were their exact words. Now, set out on his mission again, Lance had some alien money and a translator that doubled as a navigation tool.

Pidge, bless their soul, found a flower shop for Lance and programmed the directions to it. Lance made a mental note to thank Pidge later, and weaved his way through the market he was in earlier. 

The flower “shop,” looking more like a kiosk from a farmer’s market, was close to the far right corner of the market. There were buckets of prewrapped, glowing objects that sort-of looked like an alien version of lilies, with one purplish alien behind the booth. He walked to the front of the stand and held his translator to his mouth. “Hi, I—uh—I would like to buy some flowers, please? I am just visiting and I don’t really know how to convert your money to mine, so just take it? I just need one bouquet,” Lance said into his translator as the alien behind the desk looked at him, confused but seemingly used to this kind of behavior.

 He moved the translator from his mouth to in front of the alien, who took the hint and bowed so their ear was near the speaker. After hearing his words repeated in some weird language he’s never heard before, the alien looked at him questioningly. Lance held out all of the money Coran gave him, and the alien perked up. They grabbed Lance’s arm and spoke into the translator, fast and excitingly.

 When the alien was done speaking, Lance retracted his arm to listen. In a very monotonous, robot voice, Lance heard “Hello, space traveler! With _that_ kind of money, you can pick any kind of bouquet you’d like! Just point at it, and we can exchange! Your translating device is very handy, by the way; very intriguing.”

 Lance looked at the alien who seemed to be waiting for him to choose. He looked down and began scanning all of the varieties of flowers. There were many different colors, but they all seemed to have the same basic shape. As his eyes scanned his options, a certain bouquet caught his eye. He was leaning towards picking the glowing red one, but something about a different bouquet kept stealing his attention.

 The flowers that called to him had the same shape as the rest, but slowly the inside of the flowers seamlessly changed color, ranging every color of the rainbow and even black. What caught his eye about it, however, was that towards the tips of the flower petals the colors faded back into a soft-glowing white.

 The alien noticed Lance’s interest in the bouquet and made a garbled noise in their language, taking Lance out of his mesmerizing daze caused by these flowers. They made a questioning pose, urging Lance to pick quickly. Without hesitating, Lance pointed to those color-changing flowers, and handed his money over. As the money fell out of his hand and into the aliens, they grasped his arm, looking to use the translator one more time. Lance allowed it to speak and listened to the alien through the translator. “On our planet, those are what we call ‘the opal of the edens.’ They symbolize fierce loyalty and dedication, in both love and life. There is a very common myth surrounding them—strong connections between the protector, which will now be you, and the ones the protector loves cause these flowers to change shape. Only few have caused the transformation; maybe you will be one. Best of luck, dear traveler.”

At the words of the alien, Lance smiled wide. They handed Lance the bouquet, and once he held them he felt a surge of energy flow through him. Still smiling, he bowed to the alien and made his way back to the ship, staring at the flowers changing color the entire walk back. 

He made his way onto the ship and the first to see him was Allura. She gasped as soon as Lance walked in, concerning him. “Oh, quiznak! Where did you find those flowers! I can’t believe I get to see them in person!” Allura ran over to Lance, ripping the flowers from his hands. She called Coran’s name as Lance got over his initial shock.

“I bought them from an alien at the market down there?” Lance gave Allura a puzzled look. “What’s so special about them?”

As Coran walked in and reacted to the flowers the same way as Allura, she began to answer Lance’s question all while examining the flowers. “These flowers are the rarest in the whole galaxy; for these are the only flowers in existence that naturally contain quintessence!” Coran joined in on her examination of them. “Explain to me, Lance; why have you bought these flowers in the first place? Surely you did not know how rare these are.”

Lance’s face turned red and he quickly snatched the flowers back from Allura. “Well, uh, you see Allura, Pidge finished making their earth clock. And today on earth is a special holiday called Valentine’s day. And usually you—uh—you give flowers or chocolate or something to someone you are or want to be romantically involved with?”

“A holiday celebrating romance… we have a similar one on Altea, but it was a lot more… high-stake gesturing…” She pondered her words for a moment, before getting a look in her eye that Lance absolutely did not like. “Wait a moment, who did you buy these flowers for, then?”

Lance stammered out of embarrassment, before making up a poor excuse to avoid the question. He bolted out of the room and down one of the winding halls that lead to each of the paladin’s bedrooms. He found Keith’s, and caught his breath; he was nervous and very, _very_ winded from running around the castle. Wanting to chicken out he thought about a plan B: _I could always go back and tell Allura the flowers were for her, and play it off as a joke. Yeah, that’s a good idea, I should do that. Good thinking, Lance._

He turned around to walk back the way he came, but he remembered last year, and all the other bad Valentine’s days he’s had. If he could have just one good one, the holiday Lance once loved could be salvaged. He turned back around to face Keith’s door.

He looked at the bottom of the door, and a light seemed to be on inside of the room. All lingering anxieties about last year’s events repeating flew away. Lance took another deep breath, and knocked on the door.

He heard shuffling coming from inside the room, and Keith’s alarmed voice said something Lance couldn’t make out. Trying to be as confident as possible, Lance pressed the button to open the door. What he saw once the door finished opening made him instantly blush up to his ears.

Keith was standing in his room, holding what looked to be a makeshift bouquet of wildflowers from the planet they were landed on; there were dirt stains around the knees on his black jeans, and his blade was rested on his nightstand, covered in dirt. Keith, embarrassed to be caught trying to wrap a bouquet of flowers, blushed lightly; that is, until he saw the bouquet of flowers Lance was holding himself. Keith’s face turned so red Lance was afraid all of the blood had rushed to Keith’s head and thought that he might possibly faint.

Both of the boys, blushing and holding bouquets of flowers, tried stammering out some kind of words, but nothing really sounded like English. Eventually, Lance managed to say “Uh, are those uh,” he pointed at the flowers in Keith’s hand. “uh, me…” He swallowed when Keith said nothing, even though he didn’t give Keith much of a chance to talk before he continued again. “These are uh, for you?”

Keith’s face couldn’t have possibly gotten any redder, but Lance’s did once Keith gave him a small smile. “Um, uh—yeah.” Keith walked closer to Lance, and held out his bouquet that clearly wasn’t finished being wrapped. “It’s not much but… happy Valentine’s day, Lance.” He took the bouquet of blue, violet, and white iridescent flowers that Keith had given him with his free hand.

Lance stared at them in awe, and then looked back at Keith. He held out his own bouquet of flowers for the other boy. “Happy Valentine’s day to you, too.” Keith took the bouquet with both hands, staring at them, fascinated. “I kinda bought them ‘cause they looked cool, but Allura said that they’re really special?”

Keith looked at him, visibly mesmerized by the flowers. “I—Wow, Lance. These are really beautiful.” He looked past the flowers and back at Lance bashfully before averting his gaze. “My flowers aren’t much compared to yours. I went outside and cut some that were growing in the fields and stuff.”

He kept his gaze averted, until he heard Lance giggle. Keith shot his eyes up at Lance, who was holding his free hand in front of his mouth, smiling and giggling lightly. “That’s actually, like, really cute, Keith. Thanks.” The smiled at each other shyly for a few moments, neither saying a word.

Keith was the one to break the silence. “So, I take this as you liking me back?”

Lance breathed out a laugh. “Yeah. Definitely.” He smiled at Keith, and then glanced down at the flowers in his hand. “What do you say we find something to put the flowers in, and then we get Pidge to find us a movie we can watch?”

“Definitely.”

They placed the flowers on the coffee table in the lounge, where everyone could see the beauty of the two bouquets together. They sat on the couch, not even an inch apart, and watched a random movie that Pidge picked out (which, in hindsight, they shouldn’t have done because now they spent their Valentine’s day watching _Sharknado_ ).

While watching the movie, Shiro had walked into the lounge and stared at the flowers on the table. “Why are there gay flowers on the coffee table?” He asked the question to himself out loud, not expecting anyone to answer him. He looked up and saw the two teenagers on the couch staring at him, and he found his answer.

“You know, I didn’t think about the irony in me buying rainbow-colored flowers to give to you on Valentine’s day,” Lance said to Keith. They kept the conversation going with laughter, both the movie and Shiro forgotten.

Shiro sniffled as he wiped a single tear away from his eye. “They grow up so fast…”

Over time, the wildflowers withered, but the opal flowers endured. Instead of dying, flowers continued to blossom around the original flowers; Allura had moved the flowers to a large bed of soil, where the few flowers turned into an entire garden within weeks. Every time he walks past the garden of flowers now, he can’t help but to think this is what that alien meant by transformation.

It’s safe to say that Valentine’s day redeemed itself in Lance’s heart.

**Author's Note:**

> it may be the day after valentines but that won't stop me from posting this  
> follow me on tumblr -> softhowells  
> im working on a longer, multi-chaptered klance fic but i put that on hold to write this!!


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